Apache Corporation makes discoveries in Egypt again

Created: Friday, 09 May 2014 07:10

Both discoveries were drilled by Khalda Petroleum Company, an Apache Corporation-operated joint venture with the Egyptian General Petroleum Company. (Image source: Dani Simmonds/sxc.hu)Apache Corporation has made yet two other hydrocarbon discoveries — Herunefer-1X and BAT-1X — in Egypt’s Western Desert

The Herunefer-1X discovery, located in the Matruh Basin in the eastern portion of Khalda Offset Concession, encountered pay in the Alamein, Alam El Buieb-6 (AEB), Masajid, Upper Safa and Lower Safa formations. Tests from the Lower Safa and Upper Safa intervals flowed at a combined rate of 1.38mn cubic metres of gas and 7,700 barrels of condensate per day. The estimated cost to drill and complete the well was US$6mn, the company said.

The BAT-1X discovery, located in the northern Shushan Basin in the Khepri-Sethos Development Lease, tested at a rate of 877,822 cubic metres of gas and 390 barrels of condensate per day from a thick Paleozoic Shiffah sandstone interval. The well, which was drilled to a total depth of 4,741 metres, also encountered pay in the Cretaceous Upper Bahariya, Lower Bahariya, Alamein, AEB-3C and AEB-3D formations. The estimated cost to drill and complete the well was US$5.25mn.

Both discoveries were drilled by Khalda Petroleum Company, an Apache Corporation-operated joint venture with the Egyptian General Petroleum Company.

The company operates in Egypt in partnership with Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation, which owns a one-third minority interest in Apache’s Egypt oil and gas business.

Thomas M. Maher, Apache Corporation’s region vice-president and general manager in Egypt, said, “Herunefer-1X is the first of a series of exploration wells planned for the Matruh Basin area this year.

“The basin remains an attractive focus area for exploration and development and has been relatively under-explored. We have identified a number of untested structural features, and trends have been mapped and identified, with the potential for stacked targets and high-condensate-yield gas objectives.”

Apache Corporation said that it plans to construct a new 14km pipeline that will connect to the existing transportation grid at the Jade area manifold. From Jade, the production can be delivered to either the Salam or Tarek gas plants, it added.

Maher added that BAT-1X is a potentially large discovery and the latest in Apache Corporation’s pursuit of stratigraphic traps and Paleozoic subcrop plays. “Our understanding of this play concept has evolved since the 2007 Hydra Field discovery. We now recognize that these traps and subcrop plays were key geologic elements in more than 20 previous Western Desert field discoveries.”

According to company sources, it plans to drill several trend exploration wells in 2014 to evaluate and appraise the BAT discovery.

Meanwhile, additional production facilities were installed at the Hydra Field during Q1 2014. The field is currently producing 5mn cubic metres of gas and 8,600 barrels of condensate per day from six wells.